Custom Heirloom Marlin 1894 Lever-Action Rifle

Read all about how expert gunsmith Bobby Tyler customized an heirloom lever-action .357 Marlin 1894 rifle.

BY Robert Jordan Sep 18, 2024 Read Time: 6 minutes

Custom Heirloom Marlin 1894 Lever-Action Rifle

Tyler Gun Works Customizes an Heirloom Marlin Rifle

Click to listen to the audio version of this article.

I recently went to a writer’s event at Gunsite Academy where Gunsmiths Bobby Tyler and Dave Fink were showing off some truly beautiful custom firearms they had built. Bobby is based out of Texas and customizes mostly classic firearms with different finishes and engraving as well as selling gun collections that have some truly high-end pieces. Dave is based in Arizona at Gunsite and tends to customize more modern firearms as well as everyday gunsmithing for the weapons that break, need new sights, an action job, a trigger job, or any number of other things.

I’ve been a federal agent my whole life and while I certainly appreciate the beauty of a custom-finished and engraved firearm, it was never in the cards for me. I have always bought guns that I could use for work, on duty. Later in life, I was stationed in Montana and my purchases tended toward long arms for hunting. Since relocating to Arizona, most of the guns I have been drawn to have been the ones I could use in gun competitions. While I think I have some wonderful firearms, no one would admire them simply for their beauty and craftsmanship. Most of them are scuffed, often dirty, and accustomed to hard use. I simply don’t have enough disposable income to buy a showpiece that I’m not going to use. Or so I thought.

Bobby Tyler Custom Marlin 1894 .357 Mag — **Bobby Tyler (inset) and the author's heirloom Marlin 1894.**

Customizing My Marlin 1894

Bobby Tyler began his talk by asking, “What is a custom gun?” It means something different to each of us, and none of us are wrong. A custom gun doesn’t have to cost $20,000 and it doesn’t have to sit in a safe and never get used. In fact, the guns we tend to cherish the most are the ones we shot with dear old mom or dad and made memories that we hold dear more than the gun. Bobby explained that gunsmiths like he and Dave Fink make custom guns that could fit almost anyone’s budget and they would be a true heirloom because your kids would actually look forward to inheriting it.

I decided to give it a shot. I had just purchased a Marlin 1894 in .357 and had it at the Gunsite event. I mentioned to Bobby that I really like the look of case hardening and I knew that his company was the leader in the nation for color casing because of his proprietary treatment that allowed him to treat a lot of guns that other companies simply could not. Bobby said he had been looking forward to doing his first Marlin 1894 since Ruger had purchased Marlin and recently re-released the rifle. I asked if he could also get rid of the cross-bolt safety. My childhood lever action used the half-cock as the safety and I prefer it. I also don’t like the look of the cross bolt although I certainly understand the legal reasons that gun manufacturers have to load up the number of safeties on their guns these days. (If anyone reading this is a lawyer and you think I am disparaging your profession…I am.)

Lastly, I heard several writers mention that the Skinner peep sight was a big improvement over the factory leaf style rear sight and gave it a classic look so I asked for that too. My end goal was to have a really sharp-looking lever gun that I could still shoot with my kids and build some great memories. I wanted to have something that, when I pulled it out of its bag, would make people do a double-take, but not something so valuable that I was afraid to shoot it.

Custom Details & Improvements

A few months later, my custom Marlin arrived at my FFL dealer. Opening the box was like a kid at Christmas. Bobby had color-cased the receiver, the lever, and the two barrel bands but left the barrel, trigger, and hammer in their original satin blued. The two-tone look is striking, to say the least. The cross-bolt safety was replaced by a screw that looks like it came that way from the factory. The rear leaf sight had been removed and the dovetail filled in with a sight blank that matched the color of the barrel perfectly. The Skinner “Montana” peep sight now sits at the rear of the receiver, just in front of the hammer. The result is an additional 8 inches of sight radius. The original sight radius is just over 12 inches so boosting that to over 20 inches is a huge improvement.

I could have gotten a lot more done to my new lever action. I could have gotten an action job, but I didn’t think it needed it. I could have gotten it engraved with our family name or initials by some exceptionally gifted engravers working for Bobby. Looking through the gallery of custom orders on his website show everything from simple satin bluing to fully engraved. The great thing about building an heirloom is getting to pick exactly what you want and having a one-of-a-kind piece. I tend to think simple and elegance are synonymous but others want their gun to be completely transformed. In the end, I got exactly what I wanted, not what anyone else wanted. It is beautiful and usable. It is easy to aim and shoot and will build some great memories with my kids. It is something that will make them think of me after I’m gone. Isn’t that the true definition of an heirloom?